Pymmes Brook - Palmers Green

Pymmes Brook
Pymmes Brook flows eastwards and is joined by Muswell Stream from the south

Post to the west Broomfield Park
Post to the east Weir Hall
Post to the south Wood Green


Chequers Green

Chequers Way
This was once known as Blind lane
Chequers Works, The Metal Box Factory was a three-storey between the wars building in red brick with wings of 1934 and 1938 by S.N. Cooke. A perfumery had been bought by the Barlow family, who were metal box manufacturers and a works built here as a laundry. Metal Box took it over from the Barlow’s – where were running the company anyway -  by the mid 1930s it was one of their general line factories, making containers for tobacco and, baby food as well as canned food. In the Second World War the factory was the site of experiments and manufacture of various metal devices
Oakthorpe Dairy. Distribution site for Scandinavian milk producer Arla which incorporates British dairies like Express.

Cherry Blossom Close
On the site of the Metal Box Factory.

Green Lanes
The parade of shops was built in stages 1909-13 by Sykes.
292 site of The Palmadium Cinema opened by the Gale & Repard circuit in 1920. It included a billiard hall and shops Designed by J. Stanley Beard.  It had a facade of white ceramic marble with red bricks and green tiles. There was a café by the dress circle level and a 2Manual organ. It was taken over by Gaumont Theatres in 1928 and re-named Gaumont in 1951. It closed in 1961 and was demolished.
The Fox. The original Fox Pub was a two storey building from the 1800’s, and was rebuilt on the same site in 1904
The Alfred Herring – Wetherspoon's pub named for Victoria Cross winner, Alfred Herring
284 Queen’s Hall Electric Theatre opened in 1912 in a Tudor Revival style, with a half-beamed facade. Inside the safety curtain was painted with a picture of ‘Ye Olde Thatched Cottage’. In 1927 it was rebuilt with a plain white stone façade. In In 1967 it was sold to the Star Cinemas who closed it in 1967. It became a bingo club, but was demolished 1971. It became a supermarket owned by Bishop's, then Iceland Frozen Food, then Sainsbury’s Simply Food.  It may now become a library.

Hazelwood Lane
Crossed by the New River
Hazelwood School. A single storeyed building of 1908 and 1911.  Designed by H.G.Crothall, the Middlesex County Architect in arts and craft style.
Hazelwood. This was Middlesex County Council open space. It is home to a number of sports organisations among them Mayfield Cricket Club founded in 1925, Edmonton Rovers Football Club

North Circular
Crossed by both Pymmes Brook and the Muswell Stream
379 Regents Garage.  Uneedus Bus ran from the garage through the 1920s – but the bus entrance was via Regents Avenue, and the LGOC bus depot. There was an associated laundry in the same ownership. The buildings on the north circular have now gone but the garage behind remains. It is now Stephen’s Garage

Oakthorpe Road
Previously this was Jickocks Lane
Crossed by the New River on a narrow and restricted bridge
Northampton Polytechnic sports ground – the New River runs alongside it
Palmers Green Mosque. The Muslim Community and Education Centre (MCEC) & Palmers Green Mosque, dates from 1995. The organisation began work in a hut at the back of a house but in 1996 funded by donations they were able to buy Oakthorpe Sports Ground and build a mosque and community centre
St Anne’s Catholic High School. This opened in, 1994 as an amalgamation of Holy Family Convent School and St Angela’s School for Girls.
Providence Convent

Palmer's Green
Recorded as ‘Palmers grene’ in 1608 - which means a 'village green associated with a family called Palmer’. A family of this name who are mentioned in local records from the 14th.  There was a Palmer’s Field here in 1204 and a road called Palmer’s Green in 1324 but there is no record of a settlement here until four houses were built in the late 16th.  By 1801 there were 54 houses, two inns and two farms. Palmers Green is an Edwardian suburb ‘a poor man's Muswell Hill’, and it was developed by the same building company as Muswell Hill – that is Edmondsons.

Sources
Reader. Metal Box
Pevsner & Cherry London North
History of Middlesex
Middlesex Churches
Cinema Theatre Association Newsletter
Arla website
Cinema Treasures web site
Essex Lopresti. Exploring the New River
Palmers Green Mosque web site
St. Anne’s School web site

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